


paint the soul

by rainb0wprincess



Series: all the drabbles [1]
Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: Alternate Universe - Art School, Gen, No Romance, Platonic Relationships, kind of original characters? I guess..
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 19:23:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4449143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainb0wprincess/pseuds/rainb0wprincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I borrowed some of your paintbrushes in class because I forgot mine but I accidentally left with them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	paint the soul

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta-ed because I am an adult and I need to begin taking responsibility for my life (I guess). If you have any feedback or ideas, I'd love to hear them!!

Obviously he was going to be late. As always. The teacher, Annalise, checked her watch again, and let her eyes wander over her students. Eight of them. She curled her lips in distaste, and nodded at the life model, who was sat in a chair wearing a bright red robe. “We might as well begin. We shouldn’t waste time, really-“ The model, an elderly lady named Dorcas, nodded, and began taking her robe off, walking towards the pedestal in the middle of the room. Everyone began fiddling with their brushes, eager to get started. It was their first life drawing session in this course, it wasn’t originally planned to be in their syllabus, but Annalise had agreed to arrange a session for them.

Oliver shifted on his chair, and looked at his empty piece of paper taped to his easel. He hadn’t been able to attend a life drawing session in so long, he wasn’t able to fit it into his timetable for this semester and, sadly, he also couldn’t afford to go to the weekly sessions held in the little gallery in town. “Okay, we’ll begin with quick one minute poses as a warm up, and then switch to two minute poses, then five minutes, and so on. Don’t forget, this is a painting course, I don’t want you sketching, or drawing contours.” Everyone nodded. “Alright, Dorcas, let’s begin.”

They were three poses in, when the door suddenly opened, and a silent curse came from the door. Connor squeezed himself through the door, mumbled an apology to Annalise and tried to set himself up quietly as to not interrupt the others. Well, at least he tried, Oliver mused. They were about a month into the semester, but so far everyone in the course had pretty much stuck to the people they already knew. Everyone here was at least in their third semester, and from different courses, so no one really tried to make new friends anymore. Oliver didn’t really mind, he had his group of friends here, but it would have been nice to be able to really discuss their course and their work with someone from this course, who had had the same input. The most he’d spoken with someone here so far was with Laurel, when they had been discussing the pros and cons of lemon yellow over cadmium yellow. Connor now dragged an easel across towards the empty space next to Oliver. Oliver furrowed his brow as he tried to work out the angle of the model’s foot, there wasn’t a lot of time left for this pose.

“Alright, next pose. Five minutes this time” Oliver pondered whether he should get a new piece of paper, but then decided there was enough space on the page. Maybe he could go for a bigger scale figure, and layer them, he liked the layered effects. “ Hey, um, Oliver?” He looked across to Connor, who had by now pretty much got himself set up. Oliver hummed in response. “Could I maybe borrow, like, two of your brushes? I think I forgot mine, I can’t find them anywhere.” – “Yes, sure” Oliver nodded and handed over his case of brushes. “Just choose some.” – “Thank you you’re a life saver” – “That’s okay” He looked back at the model, who was now in the new pose, feet wide apart, parallel to her hips, knees slightly bent, with slightly twisted hips and her arms raised up high, her eyes following her hands. Oliver washed out his brush in his water jar, and began mixing a dark green shade.

 

* * *

 

The lesson was over in a flash. Oliver felt the familiar slight headache after focusing intently on painting for two hours straight, but he didn’t mind; instead it made him miss life drawing even more. The headache made him feel productive, and it had indeed been a really great session. His quick sketches all turned out really interesting, and he felt that the longer pieces had all worked quite well, too. He walked over to the sink to wash out his brushes and clean his palette, feeling very content with himself. He should really rethink not going to the life drawing sessions in town, even if they were more expensive, wasn’t it worth it? He loved life drawing, or painting, in this case. Maybe he’d be able to afford one session every other week, if he started buying cheaper? Would he be able to squeeze in a part time job somewhere? Maybe the little coffee shop he really liked was still hiring.. that would also possibly mean free coffee – he pondered as he washed out brushes. He turned off the tap and headed for his locker, leaving his brushes to dry on a little piece of cloth. He reached for his phone to check the time, 12:03, which meant he had about ten minutes before he was meeting up with Katie in the cafeteria.

“Okay, great work everyone today, I’m really impressed with your paintings. We’ll have the crit first thing next week.” Oliver stacked his paintings in his locker, and made his way towards the door weaving through his fellow students, who were discussing where to go for lunch. “Thanks for today, Annalise. See you next week.” – “Yes, see you next week Oliver.” He liked Annalise, Oliver thought as he left the room, walking towards the stairs. She was always extremely concise during their critiques, and knew exactly how to point them in the right direction to help them improve. His last teacher had really been not as good, and he found it a welcome change to actually be able to rely on his teacher to help him improve. His work had not been stagnating last semester, but having to deal with extremely jumbled feedback had been annoying, to say the least.

He saw Katie in front of the cafeteria, sitting on a bench and soaking up the first real sunshine of the year. She didn’t see him; her head was tilted back as she leaned backwards. He smiled to himself as he walked over. “Hey pumpkin, how was your lecture?” – “Ollie!” She exclaimed, her whole face lighting up as she saw him. “It was alright, how was your course?” – “That’s good, and my course was so so great, we had the session with the life model today, it made me realise how much I’m missing life drawing classes.. I really want to start taking them again.” Katie took the offered hand and got up, brushing over her trousers once. “Didn’t you say the ones in that place, what was it, a gallery, were too expensive?” – “Yes, but I’m seriously considering it anyways, I kind of feel like I’m in a trance, it was so much fun.” – “You art students are weird ahah.. “ – “You should try it, honestly, ..”

 

* * *

 

 

“Oh come on, you’ve been talking about how much you loved this life drawing session for at least half of lunch, you have to show me your work now, no backsies!” Oliver chuckled, “Have I really talked about it that much? I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t bore you.” Katie crooked her eyebrow, “As if, silly, if you enjoy it of course you can talk about it! I’m curious to see it now though” Oliver linked their arms together, a soft smile on his face, “Right then, let’s go see the studio, law student!” – “Yes, show me the holy halls of creation!” – “The holy halls? Kate you are ridiculous – this way.” He pointed towards the studio door, decorated with posters advertising special lectures by guest professors and the occasional splash of paint. He opened the door swiftly, and made his way towards his locker.

He was fiddling with the lock, when Katie said: “Ollie? Look here, is this for you maybe? It was lying on this table here. It says: ‘Hey Oliver, I’m really sorry I couldn’t return your paintbrushes, I swear you were gone within a second after our course ended today! I’m taking them home with me now, I didn’t want to leave them lying around here. You might want them back before next week, so here’s my phone number, call me and we can arrange to meet up? Sorry again _then he’s drawn a sad smiley face, is he really an art student, this smiley face looks so bad, seriously_ -“ – “Oh my god, Katie, it’s a smiley face, what are you expecting? If I drew a stick figure-“ – “Calm down Picasso I was just joking! Anyway; then there’s a number, and it’s signed with a ‘C’? Is this for you?”

Connor! Blimey, he’d totally forgotten he had lent him those brushes.. “Aw it’s nice that he wrote this, I’d completely forgotten I had lent him some brushes, um, I’m guessing this is Connor? He’s in my class, to be honest, I’d had him down to be the type to just walk off with the brushes after I left and forgot about it, but-“ – “but the great mastermind of the Oliver was wrong! Who would have thought it? Meet up with him, does he mean in here? Or in, like, a coffee shop? Do you have any courses together? I’m intrigued.”

Oliver cleared his throat. “I don’t think we have any other courses together, I’ve seen him around before, but I’m not even sure which semester he’s in, maybe fifth? I’ve not really spoken to him before, he’s always sitting with his friends in our course.. they seem nice but we’ve just not really spoken before?” Katie picked up the letter, examining it closely. “Call him, see where he wants to meet?” – “Calling? Er.. maybe not. Might text him. You know I don’t like phone calls.” Katie nodded and handed him the piece of paper.

“Now enough of this Connor-guy, show me your work, I’m curious” Oliver stuffed the letter into his bag, and turned to his locker again, pulling out his paintings from today. “Ooo I like this, good use of complementary colours – _I’m saying this right aren’t I?_ ” Oliver chuckled, “Yes, wow, you’re remembering the time I explained colour theory to you, well done!”

**Author's Note:**

> I know Oliver is Filipino, and I’ve not mentioned it in here at all but I don’t want to write the typical ‘race-blind’ white person writing style that’s actually erasing race and culture, but actually write about that as well, so if anyone has any feedback or tips about that, I’d love to hear it! If I continue this drabble, or write Oliver again, I want to do better considering this aspect!!


End file.
